Feeling claustrophobic in your own home? If so, you could naturally be eager to “upsize” by moving to a new, larger house – but, unfortunately, a combination of rising house prices and a lack of sufficient new supply suggests that this might not be a financially viable option for you.
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In that case, should you renovate instead? There are pros and cons to either moving or renovating, so you should carefully weigh up various factors when trying to decide on the right route for you.
The state of the property market
In the United Kingdom, the housing market has stalled, with just 367,000 people moving home in 2017, as the Homes & Property website has reported. That was under half of the 705,900 figure from ten years earlier, according to research from Lloyds, one of the UK’s largest banks.
Unsurprisingly in light of this, the research revealed that three in five homeowners believed moving house had become harder during those ten years. However, there evidently remained a strong appetite for moving, as a quarter of respondents had lined up moves for within the next five years.
Due to the increased difficulty in moving home, “we have seen more homeowners staying put and looking to add value to their homes instead,” Andrew Mason, the bank’s mortgage products director commented. However, would renovating your current home be the right step for you specifically?
The case for and against renovating
Look around your house; you might notice that excess clutter could be cleared to free up plentiful space. Even fitting partitions or knocking down walls can be much less expensive than moving, says insurance giant AXA. Furthermore, everything you love can simply be left untouched.
Renovating can also prove a great long-term investment in your house-selling power, as changes to your property now can enhance its value in the future. This could work especially well if, say, you invest in something as crucial as roofing in Newcastle upon Tyne, where money tends to go further.
However, your attempts to improve your property could be hamstrung by the need for planning permission, which can be tricky to obtain for large extensions or basements. You might also find your existing space too limited; it’s impossible to expand space in a mid-terrace house, for example.
Should you consider moving instead?
Buying a new house can seem like a simple way to get more space; you could find yourself with, for example, more bedrooms and bathrooms than you had previously grown accustomed to. On the flipside, you could move to a smaller property to allow yourself to release equity – extra cash!
A whole new house can also feel like a blank canvas on which you can stamp your own personality. You could do that by painting rooms or fitting new lighting, but where the appeal of a new home can falter is in the range of improvements that might be necessary to get everything “just right” for you. That’s where sourcing cost-effective professionals, such as roofers, can prove essential.